Vibratory devices for cleaning dentures or the like



March 11, 1969 P. P. KROLIK ET AL 3,432,148

VIBRATORY DEVICES FOR CLEANING DENTURES GK THE LIKE Filed Aug. 21. 1967 Sheet 1 of 2 FIGAL INVENTORS PAUL P. KROLIK THEODORE H. PERLMAN ATTORNEY March 11, 1969 KRQLIK ET AL 3,432,148

VIBRATORY DEVICES FOR CLEANING DENTURES OR THE LIKE Filed Aug. 2] 1967 Sheet 2 of 2 PFIGE) INVENTORS PAUL P. KROLIK THEODORE H. PERLMAN BYMaw ATTORNEY United States Patent Ofice 3,432,148 Patented Mar. 11, 1969 3,432,148 VIBRATORY DEVICES FOR CLEANING DENTURES OR THE LIKE Paul P. Krolik, 50 E. Washington, and Theodore H. Perlman, 25 E. Washington, both of Chicago, Ill. 60602 Continuation-impart of applications Ser. No. 535,646, Mar. 11, 1966, and Ser. No. 568,831, July 29, 1966. This application Aug. 21, 1967, Ser. No. 661,882 US. Cl. 259-72 Int. Cl. B01f 9/10, 13/08 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates generally to vibratory cleaning devices and more panticularly to an improvement over our applications of the same name, Case No. I, Ser. No. 535,646, filed Mar. 11, 1966, and Case No. II, Ser. No. 568,831, filed July 29, 1966, now Patent No. 3,392,964, and accordingly this is a continuation-in-part of said patent applications and the invention is concerned with devices for removing surface impurities from various types of articles such as :deuture plates, jewelry or the like.

As explained in our previous applications, in the prior art it is well known to clean surfaces of all types of solid articles by first immersing them in a suitable liquid and then employing ultrasonic vibrations which are transmitted to the liquid in which the articles are immersed, said ultrasonic vibrations loosening and removing the foreign particles in the surfaces of the articles. Since all of these types of devices which were heretofore available have been relatively complicated instruments that were sensitive to high temperatures and generally quite expensive, mainly dentists who have use for these devices every day have such devices in their possession. Thus, denture wearers usually do not adequately clean their dentures unless they see their dentists and have them clean the same with ultrasonic devices in their possession.

To obviate these problems we have provided new and improved vibratory devices which comprise resilient tanks that are supported by resilient plates which are caused to vibrate at the lower sonic frequencies by vibrating means and in turn impart vibration to cleansing liquids in the tanks. These devices are described in our above noted earlier patent applications. In the latter above noted application it was found that the lower sonic type of vibrating cleaning device operates most efficiently if the vibrations are imparted to the fluid with equal amplitude throughout the fluid container. To accomplish this, a crib was associated with the device and it had an alternating current vibrator physically attached thereto. The crib was resiliently supported on all corners thereof and it was formed to engage and support a cleaning tank whereby the cleaning tank was removed from a continuous relationship with the armature. To provide more efiicient vibration for cleaning liquid in the tank it has been found that the armature or vibrating mechanism of our device can be directly associated with the tank and the tank can likewise have a cavity therein for mounting onto the lower housing of our device which contains a coil to actuate the armature. With this construction there are less parts as the crib can be eliminated. Also, the cleaning tank in being directly mounted to the lower housing by means of a cavity is stabilized so that vibration caused by the armature is more effective on the bottom of the tank. Still further, our construction has an armature which is adjustable so that it can be selectively moved to different positions relative to the coil in order to provide different vibratory effects.

Accordingly it is the primary object of our present invention to provide a new and improved. vibratory cleaning device which has a cleaning tank where the bottom thereof is directly associated with an armature for vibration and is stabilized in a simple and efficient manner.

It is still further an object of this invention to provide an efficient low-cost vibratory cleaning device for removing impurities from various types of articles, particularly dentures and jewelry or the like.

It is even still a further object of this invention to provide an improved vibratory cleaning device which has an armature adjustably associated with the tank thereof so that the distance between said armature and the coil of the device can be varied.

According to a preferred embodiment of our invention the cleaning device comprises, in combination among other things, a lower housing portion having an alternating current actuated coil, a cleaning tank having a cavity at the bottom thereof which conformingly engages the top of the lower housing. The tank has an adjustable armature at the center thereof which protrudes through an opening in the lower housing in order that it is in magnetic alignment with the coil and the lower housing whereby an alternating current actuated magnetic vibrator having different vibration strength is formed with said coil. The cover encloses the cleaning tank to protect it and its contents from ambient contaminates.

Other and further objects of our invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the specific embodiment as illustrated in the drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view of our improved vibratory device;

FIGURE 2 is a front elevational view of the device illustrated in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a top view of our device, the cover thereof being shown as removed;

FIGURE 4 is a top view of the lower housing of our device;

FIGURE 5 is an exploded cross-sectional view taken on a plane passing through a line 55 in FIGURE 1 and illustrating our device disassembled; and

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary sectional view illustrating how our device appears when the parts illustrated in FIGURE 5 are in assembled relationship.

Referring more particularly to the drawings wherein like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout, the reference character 10 in FIG- URE 1 indicates a preferred embodiment of the outer portion of our vibratory device that includes, among other things, the lower housing 12, a tank 14 which has a cavity on the lower portion thereof that rests on and engages the top of the lower housing as will be more fully explained hereinafter. As is illustrated in FIGURE 5, the tank is adapted to contain a liquid cleansing medium such as water or other suitable liquid 15. The lower housing 12 may be formed from different materials such as plastic or the like, its main function being to house the coil 16 of. the vibratory mechanism in addition to supporting and engaging the tank 14. The lower housing 12, as seen from FIG- URES 4, 5 and 6, has a cover 12a with a central aperture 13 that is in alignment with the coil 16 when the same rests on top of the lower portion 12b of the lower housing 12. The cover has bosses 17 extending therefrom on the inside thereof with threaded apertures 17a. The threaded apertures 17a are in alignment with the lower counterbored lugs 19 when resting on the lower portion 12b of the lower housing 12 in order that the fastening members 20 can attach the cover 120 to the lower housing 12, as illustrated in FIGURE 6. It Will be noted that the cover has a tapered peripheral wall 22 that terminates with a rim 22a in order to be received by a circular recess 23 in the lower housing 12.

The tank 14 has a bottom 24 with an upper hub member 26 protruding upwardly therefrom and a lower hub member 28 protruding downwardly therefrom. The upper hub member 26 has a threaded aperture 26a formed therethrough in order to threadedly receive the armature screw 30 which has the armature 32 attached thereto at the bottom thereof. The lower hub is sized in diameter and disposed to be received within the central aperture 13 when connected thereto as illustrated in FIG. 6. The tank has side walls 34, 34a which are tapered on the outside and straight on the inside. The bottom 35 of the side walls extends downward below the bottom 24 of the tank and is tapered in conformity with the tapered wall 22 in addition to extending below the bottom of the tank in order that it can engage the same when resting on the top 1211 as illustrated in FIGURE 6. Also the armature screw 30 has a cap 36 threadedly attached thereto at the top end thereof in order to cover the same regardless of the location of the end of the screw 30 with respect to the upper hub 26. Still even further, the opening in the tank is covered by the lid 38 which is received by a recessed portion 14a in the upper portion of the tank 14. The lid 36 has a handle 38a which extends from the lid in order that the lid can be gripped and a cavity 38b in the lid is formed so that clearance of the cap 36 by the lid is maintained regardless of the position of the cap.

The coil 16 is supported in the lower housing 12 by means of an L-shaped bracket 40 which rests on a block 41 that is interposed between the L-shaped bracketand the bottom of the lower housing. The L-shaped bracket 40 is secured by means of a brace member 42 which is attached thereto by fastener means 44 in order to firmly grip the plate 46 which extends from the bottom of the lower housing 12.

In FIGURE 6 it can be seen that the position of the screw 30 with respect to the coil 16 is what determincs the air gap between the armature 32 and the pole pieces 16a which are disposed on top of the coil 16. The coil of our device can be energized in the same fashion as those illustrated in our previous applications. The power cord 49, such as is shown in FIGURE 1, can be attached to a power source (not shown) and a switch 52 and pilot light 54 are connected in series with the power source so that when the switch 52 is actuated to the on position the coil and pilot light are operated. When the coil 16 is energized it builds up sufficient flux twice per cycle of the source of energizing electricity to vibrate the armature 32. For example, if the coil is connected to a 60-cycle source then sutficient electric power is generated twice per cycle or 120 times per second to attract the armature assembly 22 toward the coil 16.

As is best seen from FIGURES 5 and 6, the tank 14 is filled with a cleansing liquid 15. The object to be cleaned is immersed in the liquid. The lid 38 is then positioned on the tank and the tank is slip fitted into engagement with the top 12a of the lower housing. The armature screw is then adjusted so that the armature 32 is the desired distance from the coil 16. When the tank engages the top of the lower housing, as illustrated in FIGURE 6, the tank is completely stabilized and any vibration from the armature is physically attached to the tank. Thus the full force and effect of the vibration operates sufliciently to agitate the liquid and to cleanse the immersed object. Due to the fact that the armature is directly attached to the tape there is undampened vibration and the amplitude of the vibration is maximized. Also the tank is provided with a waved structure 56 at the bottom thereof in order that when vibration is imposed thereon the liquid contained in the tank has the form of waves of said bottom imposed thereon. Ergo the objects of our invention are fulfilled.

Although we have shown a specific construction of our device, we are fully cognizant of the fact that many changes in the shape and contour may be made without affecting its operativeness, and we reserve the right to make such changes, as we may deem convenient without departing from the spirit of our invention, or the scope of the claims.

We claim:

1. A vibratory device for cleaning dentures or the like, comprising a tank for containing liquid used in cleaning dentures or the like,

electromagnetic means including a coil and armature means,

said armature means being attached to the bottom of said tank, a lower housing for holding said coil means, said lower housing having a top portion which is shaped to conform to a cavity in said tank in order that said tank can engage said top portion of said lower housing by having said tank slip fitted therein,

said top portion of said lower housing having an aperture which is disposed to enable said armature to protrude therethrough When said tank is slip fitted with said lower housing,

whereby the vibration imposed on said armature due to an alternating current being imposed on said coil is directly imposed on the bottom of said tank and the liquid contained therein is thoroughly agitated.

2. A vibratory device, as defined in claim 1, said tank having side walls that form a cavity with the bottom of said tank therebelow, said side walls being suitably formed on the inside thereof in order that said tank can be slip fitted over said top portion and said walls of said cavity engage the periphery of said top portion of said lower housing.

3. A vibratory device, as defined in claim 1, wherein said armature is adjustably associated with said tank, said upper portion of said lower housing having a central aperture which is disposed to enable said armature to protrude therethrough when said tank is slip fitted with said lower housing, whereby said armature means can be adjusted to dilferent distances between said coil and different magnitudes of vibration can be produced by said device.

4. A vibratory device, as defined in claim 3, wherein said armature is attached to a threaded fastener and said tank is threadedly associated with said fastener, whereby said threaded fastener can be selectively adjusted by rotation in order that said armature is selectively spaced from said coil for different vibration magnitudes.

5. A vibratory device, as defined in claim 4, wherein the bottom of said tank has waves formed therein.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS ROBERT W. JENKINS, Primary Examiner. 

